My Immortal
by MrsJoey Wheeler
Summary: Sakura and Gaara are together thanks to a political marriage. Gaara doesn't know how to express his feelings to Sakura, but it's coming off to her that he doesn't want to share his feelings with her. Looking back on their time together helps them realize why they chose each other to begin with. GaaSaku, fluff


Disclaimer: I do _not_ own Naruto or any characters mentioned in this story. The rights belong to Kishimoto-sensei and the companies that distribute the series.

Author's Note: Hi all! My first posted Naruto fanfiction and this one happens to be a present! ^^ I have a big story in the works, but I've never been enough into it to try posting it. I may get a few chapters out and test the waters on it, but that won't be for a while.

This story is not something I'd usually write. Songfics, yes. Gaara/Sakura pairing, no. This story is a gift for one of my best friends as a late birthday and Christmas present. This is the third pairing that was chosen for her present, because I couldn't get into the other two.

I chose the song I did, because I felt like Gaara and Sakura's relationship would have this kind of conflict. If you read the story and then listen to the song, you should be able to picture how the story fits with the song.

I honestly haven't read the manga or watched a lot of Shippuden, so the basis of all this is up to when the Akatsuki attack Gaara and not too much beyond that. The story should clear up some random loose ends.

Time to stop talking! Enjoy the story! ^^

**My Immortal **

**(Gaara and Sakura) **

Sakura sat on the floor in her bedroom folding laundry. She carefully folded the clothes from one basket into another. The kunoichi was used to this housework instead of going out and doing missions. She had been married for 3 years now.

To the Kazekage.

Their marriage had been arranged. The Sand Village had chosen Sakura to be their leader's bride, because she was a strong ninja that was also kind towards the emotionally wrecked young man. Even though Gaara had gotten better from where he had been during the Chunin Exams, he still had a lot of hidden emotional turmoil.

When Sakura learned that she was chosen to be the bride in the political marriage, she was first very upset. She soon sucked it up and decided to go through with the week she needed to spend with Gaara for the marriage to be official. It's not like she was losing out on anything. Orochimaru was defeated and Sasuke was a missing link and labeled a traitor of the Leaf Village. Over the time trying to get him back, the pink-haired girl had realized that she had basically fallen out of love with him. She didn't have those kinds of feelings for anyone, so why not try to love someone for the sake of the village?

Sakura jumped. She turned a bit to see that her husband was leaning up against her back. She smiled a bit and continued to fold laundry. His head moved with her as she moved, like he was a ragdoll.

"You know, if you sit up for a bit I can finish these and we can sit together," she told the red-haired ninja behind her. "Then your head wouldn't be going every which way."

He didn't move and he didn't speak. Gaara was thinking, and he didn't want to do anything to break his chain of thought.

The Kazekage had been fighting with himself all day over her. Over how they had been married for 3 years, together for 3½ and he still couldn't fully express his feelings for her to her. Completely fed up with his own lack of willingness to share, he made himself depressed and he couldn't figure out how to fix it. He wanted to ask her to help him feel better. To hold him; talk to him; do everything she always did to make him feel somewhat happy again. But he was so depressed; he couldn't even muster up enough energy to say her name.

On her last shirt, Sakura pushed it into her lap. "What's wrong?" she asked. "You only get like this when there is something wrong." No answer. "Seriously; Gaara, what is up with you?" His mouth opened to no sound and closed slowly. She sighed heavily, not knowing that he tried. "You know what, if you don't want to share, that's okay. But you could at least let me do the rest of these chores without you being deadweight on my back." She got up and tossed the shirt on the floor. She never turned to look at him, she just went straight to the door that lead into the hallway and walked out.

Gaara was sitting up, but he was in a daze. After a few silent moments, he reached over and picked up the shirt that Sakura had thrown on the floor. He brought it up to his nose and smelled it.

_'It smells like her…'_

The sand ninja tucked the shirt into his lap as he curled into a ball on the floor. When he was settled in the right position, he buried his face into the shirt to soak up his wife's smell. His teeth gritted and his whole body trembled a bit. He couldn't take this pain anymore. His emotional scars were too deep, and he was so depressed that he wondered why he even asked Sakura to marry him.

_'There is too much that time cannot erase…I'll be this monster forever.'_

* * *

Sakura walked out onto the top of the building. The roof allowed her to look over the village as the sun got lower and lower in the sky. She took her usual place in her usual position, her arms crossed on top of the bar. She gazed over the buildings around her, her skirt moving a bit as the breeze came through. She wore long black shorts with a short, off-white flowy skirt over them. The skirt was part of her favorite long sleeve dress. Her feet were bare, because she hadn't bothered putting on shoes.

Her chin dropped to her arms. "Why doesn't he share the most important things with me? Can't he trust me?" The pink-haired young woman thought back on everything that she and her husband had gone through. She remembered the first nights that they shared a bed, and how she held him as he had reoccurring nightmares. She remembered the countless times in the last three years that she had wiped away tears as he cried about his past. She remembered the times that she would hold his hand during speeches to the village to remind him that he wasn't alone. That someone truly cared about him.

"Even after…everything…" she choked as she started to cry. "You still have me….all of me…you're all I really have anymore…"

Sakura cried and thought about how Gaara looked to her when their marriage was first arranged. How he looked to her when they had their week together to see if it would work out. Even though she hadn't seen him for a while, he looked…different. He looked like he was…happy, for the most part; like he had found out where he belonged. She was captivated by how handsome and sure of himself he seemed to be. When she spent the time watching him from afar, she felt like it could work. She felt as though the two of them could really make this relationship happen.

The two of them had spent plenty of time alone together over that week. This time was awkward at first, but after a couple of days they warmed up enough to discuss things about each other. It was mostly Gaara asking Sakura questions to learn more about her, keeping himself as closed up as he could. As obvious to outsiders, Gaara had begun to trust Sakura and wanted her to sit closer and closer to him at meetings and meals. The two got along well around others and became great friends in private.

On the sixth day of her trip, the two had been sitting on her bed talking. They were talking about their families again and ended up bringing up the fact that she was leaving in two days to go home.

An awkward silence had fallen between them. "A decision has to be made tomorrow," Gaara had said. Sakura answered with a quiet, "Yeah" as she tugged her legs up to her chest. At that point, she didn't really want to leave. Sure she missed her family and her friends in Konoha, but for some reason it felt right to stay.

Another awkward silence; this one lingered. Sakura was about to speak up when she found herself flat on her back, looking up into a pair of deep green eyes. Slowly, her own green eyes closed as the gap between their lips closed. Sakura couldn't help but reach up at cup his face with one of her hands. The kiss was gentle, but obviously showcased Gaara's feelings. Softly, their lips separated and Sakura looked up to see the black on the back of the Kazekage's eyelids. He quickly got up and left the room. The pink-haired kunoichi had covered her red face as his blushing face burned behind her eyelids.

The next day, after all the morning meetings, the two had stood together on the roof of his home, looking over the village. It had been noticed to everyone else how awkward the two were around each other now. The two didn't stand too far away from each other, but they didn't look at each other. Sakura knew that if this kept going that it would never end.

"Gaara…" she had begun. "I-"

She had been cut off by Gaara pulling her into a hug. His arms wrapped around her; one around her waist, one around her shoulders. His face was buried in her shoulder. Sakura felt tears prick her eyes. She hadn't thought that Gaara was so serious about his feelings.

"Sakura…" he had mumbled. "Stay with me…"

She brought her arms up to snake their way around his neck. She nodded against him and her arm. "I'll stay…" she had whispered. "I think I belong here…with you…" She felt Gaara tense a bit and pull her away from him. She was now cradled in the arms around her waist, her own hands resting on the top of his chest.

"Sakura," he had said, eyes serious with little emotion. "Will…will you be my wife? Will you stay here with me?" His eyes had suddenly filled with emotion when he was done, telling her something he wasn't able to say out loud, _'I need you Sakura.'_

She had swallowed the lump in her throat. For some reason it all felt right, like it was meant to be. Her family would understand. Her friends would understand. To them she was "doing it for the village", even though it was her choice. "Yes," she had choked out, not caring about what other people thought. "I'll stay by your side."

One of his hands had come up to cup her face and he pulled her into another kiss. She had held tightly onto his clothes as the hand on her waist tugged her closer to him. His hand tangled in her hair as the heated kiss said everything neither of them could say out loud.

Sakura started bawling and ended up on her knees. _'How could Gaara have changed so much? He used to trust me…'_

Sakura felt like she had been left in the past and Gaara had moved on without her most of the time. Other times, it was the other way around. His sad and dejected face haunted her wherever she went, whether he was there or not. It was a struggle just to sleep sometimes, because she had quiet nightmares about how his feelings had seemed to change. The dreams were always the same: Gaara was first cradled in her arms as he spilled out every feeling he could describe; then the two of them were doing something together, both of them happy and Gaara being himself; but the dreams always ended with Gaara walking away from her, the depressed face that he used to wear in childhood plastered on his face. She would try to comfort him, touch him, but he'd pull his arm away or act as though it wasn't her business. She knew that it was her business. They had agreed to tell each other everything.

The young woman heard his voice in her head and she cried again. His voice; it usually made her feel soaked up in joy, no matter the situation. The two of them had never had a fight, and there were little to no arguments between the village board to cause Gaara to use an angry tone of voice. Now it felt as though she could only hear his angry voice and she covered her ears. She felt as though she was losing her mind.

"These wounds won't seem to heal," she choked out as she cried. She was thinking about her own pain about Gaara's coldness; and Gaara's pain that was deep in his emotions. The pain of both of them was now terribly real for Sakura and she found herself in a ball, sitting up against the railing.

"I guess there's just too much that time cannot erase…" She tucked her face into her arms.

* * *

Gaara was now sitting up on their bed, the shirt still in his hands. He stared at it, running his finger over the collar. He knew that wherever she had gone, that she wasn't far; and that she was crying.

"I should be there," he said to himself quietly. "I'm supposed to wipe away all of her tears." He got choked up a bit. "I should be making sure that she's not scared of losing me…I…I need her. I need her to hold my hand…like she has for all of these years…"

_'She took off…even though…even though she still has me…_

_ …all of me…'_

* * *

No one had seen Sakura in over an hour. Gaara was now looking around the house for her, asking if anyone had seen her. He wanted to apologize, to tell her everything he was feeling. Deciding that she would turn up eventually, he made his way to the roof.

He felt a lead weight in his chest as he opened the door to the look-out space. He had this overwhelming feeling that she had left him. He just couldn't help but think the worst, that she had just left and left him here alone. He leaned against the doorway and buried his face in his hands.

"It's so hard to think that you're gone…" he mumbled.

* * *

Sakura had finally stopped crying, but she kept her face in her knees. She thought about the things that she would be doing if she was still a Leaf Ninja of Konoha, and not the bride of the Kazekage. She thought about the things that her friends told her about in letters and the discussions that they had when they came to visit. She thought about the kinds of missions that she, Naruto, and Sai would be going on. She thought about all the family dinners she missed with her parents.

All she had now was Gaara; Gaara, his village, and his family. There was nothing else she really had. Sure, she could write all the letters home that she wanted, call as many times as she wanted, but it wasn't the same as hugging her mom, or eating dinner with Lady Tsunade and Shizune. She felt…lonely…

"Even though you're here with me…." she said out loud as she raised her head.

"…I've been alone all along."

"It's so hard to think that you're gone…"

* * *

Sakura felt a tear go down her cheek as she swore she heard Gaara's voice. She looked around the roof to lock eyes with him as he stood in the doorway. Their green orbs locked in place as he took a step towards her, and then another. The silence seemed to last forever.

"I've been looking for you," he finally said, never leaving her gaze. "I…" his gaze dropped now. "…I wanted to tell you that I'm sorry…"

Sakura was still a little in shock, but she could see the honesty in his face. She started getting to her feet as he continued.

"I…I just didn't know what to say…" he said, his head hanging low. "I-I've been so depressed lately…because I felt bad that I don't share as much with you as you do with me. I feel like I know you…but you don't know anything about me…I…I just haven't found a way-"

He was cut off by the arms that were now around his waist. His wife's face was resting against his shoulder.

"You couldn't find a way to tell me about your feelings? About the deepest parts of your past?" she said as tears started running down her cheeks. "Damn you Gaara. I know how you feel. And after all the tears I've wiped off of your face, don't you think I understand that your past is a hard subject for you?"

The red-headed Kazekage felt tears behind his own eyelids as he wrapped his arms around her, one hand resting on her head. "I know…" he mumbled. There was a pause. "Were you afraid I was going to tell you to leave?" She got choked up now and buried her face into his chest. She nodded as his hand began to stroke her hair. "I would never do that. I need you Sakura. I need you to keep holding my hand; just like you have for all of these years we've had together. I…" He tugged her closer. "I feel whole when you're here, by my side. I don't feel alone. I feel so alone even though there are so many people around."

Sakura fought to look up into his eyes. Their teary eyes met and Gaara moved to wipe away one of her tears that he just started rolling down her cheek. "But you still have me," she said lovingly. "All of me. Forever."

Gaara leaned down the little bit to give her a feather-light, loving kiss. Their arms tightened around each other as they kissed again. This time it was a little more passionate, but still subtle, like all their kisses were. When the second kiss ended, Gaara tugged Sakura close to him and they stood together on the roof as the full moon rose higher into the sky.

* * *

A/N: So yeah. =]

This story could have gone a multitude of ways, but this way was the way the lyrics spoke to me first, so I picked this way.

And I'm just gonna leave this little bit here: Happy Belated Birthday and Merry Christmas to my Domi-chan. 3 I hope you liked it.


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